The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    "VOUCHER" RHYMES WITH "OUCH" AND "SLOUCHER"

    By Oxy Mora on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:58am |

    Frank Luntz must be working overtime to re-brand the Ryan Budget.

    Always the cockeyed optimist about the fortunes of Democrats, I think the Ryan Budget spells doom for Republicans in 2012-- because of Republicans' serious miscalculations about what voters expected of them and then--egads, in what is normally a Democratic style faux pas, going on record on the thing with a HR vote by 235 members.

    Recent polls are very convincing that the public hates the idea of killing Medicare and substituting VOUCHERS.  OUCH!--sudden pain--what to do.

    As shown around MSNBC yesterday, Republican Congressmen who tried to sell the Ryan plan to constituents in town hall meetings ran into buzz saws. So, some extemporaneous re-phrasing was in order. "Voucher" doesn't mean voucher, it means "premium support". The congressman didn't vote for a "proposal" to end Medicare, he voted for a "blueprint" of how to proceed with the deficit. How disingenuous can you get? I assume Frank Luntz will come up with  much better re-branding.

    Ryan is the crown jewel of the Republican Fiscal Responsibility Brain Trust. But when he held up the skimpy little "path to prosperity" plan in a 25 cent plastic binder from Office Depot one could only be reminded of Boehner's one page "Pledge" of a few months ago. Then came the revelation that Ryan's GDP numbers were lifted directly off a Heritage Foundation website. One cannot escape the impression that Ryan is at best, a SLOUCHER. What in hell does this guy do with his time when he is not working out in the gym?And that vacant stare, reminds me of Digger O'Dell. Doesn't he look like he'd make an excellent embalmer?

    By the way, there is another definition of "ouch", a setting for a precious stone. Yup, Ryan is the crown jewel of the Republicans. He is a deep thinker. Only the public has already seen right through him and his blueprint for the evisceration and embalming of America. The only thing deep about this guy is his hair part and the only thing that shines in him is cubic zirconium.

     

     

    Comments

    Yeah, I'm also struck by the absence of the usual Republican linguistic tricks. It's too late to de-voucherize the Ryan plan now. Someone should have consulted Luntz before rolling it out.

    You can call Ryan a sloucher, but I don't think its laziness. I just think he's more honest than your average Republican politician. That's a bit like being more healthy than your average deep-fried candybar, but it's all relative. Before anyone jumps down my throat, that doesn't make him right or reasonable or courageous or honorable. The point is just that Ryan is just not as slick as people like Luntz or Rove. Thankfully.


    by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 11:53am


    Thanks, point well taken. After writing this I did a search on school "voucher" because that has always seemed to be a non-starter with the public. Recent polling shows it's more evenly divided than I would have thought, except when the proviso "even if it means cutting public school funding" is added, which turns the public decisively against vouchers. A couple of polls, Florida, and N.C., decisive states for Obama, show especially high opposition to school "vouchers". All of this being said, it suggests that Ryan overlooked the possible negative association of Medicare vouchers with school vouchers--which, I agree, is not a mistake Rove or Luntz would have made.

    I don't know about "honest" or "not slick". Maybe "over-rated". Anyway, those 235 votes are finally something Democrats can work with, especially focusing in the swing districts.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 12:19pm

    http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/40509

    Peeps, including repub peeps are getting pretty pissed about all this. And not just in Ryan's home state!

    This is backfiring like w bush's privatization plan for SS.


    by Richard Day on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 5:45pm

    The latest from Ryan is that the voucher is not a voucher, it's a "coupon".

    And, "There is a lot of distortion about his plan". Obviously he's been talkinhg to Luntz. In concept the statement reminds me of Luntz' work on climate change.  "The science is inconclusive".

    But at the same time Boehner has called the plan "an idea of worthy consideration, er, it was Paul's plan"

    But where are Obama's speechwriters:  " Paul Ryan has a message for seniors. I'm from the government, and I have a voucher for you".


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:23pm

    ...."But the Republicans have charted a radical course that I and numerous other Americans cannot support," he wrote. "For that, they will be punished. They have embraced the three third rails of American politics - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Their proposals effectively destroying them through privatization or substantially reducing funding are anathema to the American public, and they will pay the price: defeat."

    from

    Ed Koch, Reluctantly for Obama
    By Reid Pillifant, New York Observer, April 25, 2011


    by artappraiser on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 8:48pm


    Thanks, Artsy. I occasionally listen to and enjoy Koch on Sirius radio.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:29pm

    The guy has over-reached. It'd be a great time for the Dems to drive them onto the back foot, and once there, just keep em backpedalling. What was it, now Reid wants to make the Senate vote on Ryan's Budget? The Dems need to invest some money and some political capital, NOW, not just in making this stick to the Republicans, but in mobilizing a bit of energy, get the base going. Because once Obama has budget negotiations with the GOP, and IF he begins trading off anything from SS or Medicare, then the Dems will own it.

    Hit Ryan now.


    by quinn esq on Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:43pm

    Quinn, right on. Boehner is already trying to run away from Ryan. All the more reason to nail Ryan now. Nail him and you nail this hapless Republican HR.

    The Dems should spend money now, running ads in swing districts against the Republicans who voted for the Ryan bill, er, his blueprint, or was it a random suggestion worthy of consideration, or, you know, just a spitballin'  idea involving coupons and premium support for seniors.

    The Reid plan to vote on the Ryan bill is exactly the kind of chicken shite the public hates. Like you say, go for the kill.  


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 10:00am

    Yesterday the Vermont state senate voted nearly overwhelmingly to institute the first state single payer health care plan. The governor will sign it and doubtless the Obama Administration will provide a waiver under the Affordable Health Care plan.

    When you think about it, state single payer plans may be the ultimate solution to our health care problems. Think about it, a health care plan where almost no money goes to Insurance company overhead costs.

    Here's an interesting thought. A state like Illinois passes a single payer plan. Suddenly businesses realize that this is a huge advantage. Businesses begin moving their operations from red states like Missouri and Oklahoma to Illinois. What happens next? Well, Missouri take your choice. Support medical insurance companies or support employment in your state. Fortunately for Vermont there are not the established corporate players to try and torpedo this plan, like there are, say, in Connecticut. But Connecticut is blue, so maybe there is a hybrid scheme which hasn't even been envisioned yet.

    It will be interesting to see the reaction to Vermont in states like New Hampshire, a swing state. In a nexus  like the "Upper Valley" where you're never sure which state you are in anyway, a worker without medical coverage, say at a small manufacturing company, could literally move across the road and become a Vermonter instead of a New Hampshire-ite.

    Fascinating stuff, and may eventually make even the Medicare debate irrelevant.  

     


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 9:50am